1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus for reading data from a recording medium having audio data and video data, and more particularly, to a special reproducing method for specially reproducing sound and an information reproducing apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, in case of special reproduction, for example, double-speed reproduction, video tape recorders (VTR) or cassette tape recorders directly reproduce and output a sound with a frequency two times higher as compared to the normal reproduction.
In addition, as other special reproducing method, a method for thinning reproduced sound is known. In this method, for example, in case of quadruple-speed reproduction, three-quarters of reproduced audio data is cut, and one-quarter thereof is reproduced and outputted
As seen from above, in the conventional special reproducing method of sound, in case of n-speed reproduction, reproduced sound frequency becomes n-times larger, or reproduced audio data becomes 1/n times smaller as compared to the normal reproduction, so that the omission of audio data becomes large. Thus, there occurs a problem that the contents of the audio data become unclear, and are hard to hear.
In addition, in an optical disk recording and reproducing apparatus for reading data from an optical disk, there is a problem that a method for specially reproducing sound is not established.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a special reproducing method of sound and an information reproducing apparatus capable of making it easy to understand the contents of sound during special reproduction.
In a special reproducing method of sound of the present invention, audio data read from a recording medium 1 is converted into text data by sound recognition during special reproduction, and the characters representing text data are displayed, being overlapped with special reproducing images.
In addition, in one embodiment of the above-described special reproducing method of sound, the contents of a sound for n-seconds recorded on the recording medium are displayed for one second during special reproduction, that is, n-speed reproduction (n is a positive real number larger than 1.)
In addition, in an information reproducing apparatus of the present invention, audio data read out from the recording medium 1 is converted into text data by sound recognition during special reproduction, and the characters representing the text data are displayed, being overlapped with special reproducing images displayed on a display device.
In addition, one embodiment of the above-described information reproducing apparatus includes: reading units 2 through 9 for reading out audio data and video data from a recording medium; display units 10 through 12 and 14 for displaying reproduced images based on video data on a display device; a conversion unit 13 for converting audio data by sound recognition and displaying the characters representing the text data, being overlapped with the reproduced images; and a control unit 15 for instructing the reading units, display units, and conversion units to perform a special reproduction according to a special reproduction request from the outside.
In addition, it is another object of the present invention to provide an information reproducing apparatus and method for converting at least parts of audio data read out from the recording medium into a visually recognizable form, and displaying them.